Rustic elegance might be the best way to describe the on-set of a recent Eugene Oregon excursion I took through wine country. Our wine blogger conference excursion group was courted by some great people from  Eugene Cascade Coast and AMTRAK. This historic restored 19th century barn is the home to Heidi Tunnell Catering Company. Heidi may live in a small town, but this is no run of the mill catering as she took home the title of Iron Chef OR in 2011.

We were happily greeted in the barn by Heidi and a cold glass of bubbles on an unusually ...

I just returned a few days ago from a half day in Napa and two days in Sonoma. I'd been to both regions before, but not during harvest. This time was different. It could be seen with the tractors driving on the main roads, and in some cases pulling grapes in loaded bins just harvested. It could be heard from the back of wineries as new barrels were filed and fork-lifts brought in grapes. It could be smelled around the tasting rooms, that harvest was here. I could sense, see, and hear from winemakers walking by, with a disheveled ...

This is a phrase many of us in the US have heard and used; so please anyone outside the US that might be reading this I am not a cross dresser. I have visted over 100 tasting rooms so far in 2011 from Washington State down to Temecula CA, and had the pleasure of venturing out to nearly a dozen wine festivals. This does not make me any kind of expert, other than I'll have to have a glass surgically removed at some point. This is a simple title to let you know these are some of the wines ...

I've often said there are two kinds of people in the world; "those that get it," and "those that don't." Those of us that do "get it," have fallen into the other box at times. These are called our stupid moments in life, or as I like to play my "man card" as a momentary laps of reason. Most of a single year between my 19th birthday and 20th was also in the "those that don't" bucket.

I've seen some posts recently relating to social media which can be a form of customer service, and ...

Do not ever mention the movies Sideways or Bottle Shock in a tasting room. Whatever interesting or funny comment you think you have, trust me, they do not want to hear it......and they have more than likely heard it before.

I have spent much time in the area where Sideways was filmed. I was excited when the movie first came out because I had heard they were at many of the places I know all too well and was excited to see the places on film. I am sure there was much excitement in the Santa Barbara County / Santa ...